The invention relates to a knife assembly for a veneer lathe. In particular, the invention relates to means for adjusting the gap between the cutting knife and the backing nose bar, known in the art as the knife gap, especially in a local manner at one or more selected points along the length of the knife/nose bar. The knife gap adjustment implemented by the means according to the invention can be appreciated as fine adjustment that as necessary either complements or compensates for the basic adjustment performed using the conventional adjustment means of the veneer lathe.
The knife assembly according to the invention comprises the conventional structures of a knife assembly, namely, a lower portion supporting the cutting knife and a upper portion supporting the nose bar, whereby the upper portion also includes screw means or the like for adjusting the position of the nose bar in the supporting upper portion. According to the invention, the screw means are equipped with means for controlling the temperature of the screw means.
The temperature control of the adjustment screw means serves to affect the longitudinal thermal expansion of the screw means and, thus, to provide means for a fine adjustment of the length of the screw.